Astros top pick Carlos Correa already a hero at home in Puerto Rico

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SANTA ISABEL, Puerto Rico — Just before 10:30 p.m., Carlos Correa pulls up in a black Mitsubishi across the street from Pro Master AA Barber Shop.

The building is pitch dark. The door is locked. Store hours are from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday — unless, of course, you happen to have the most famous head of hair in town.

A few minutes pass before co-owner Alfonso Martinez Nieves arrives at the front door. Correa has been coming here for years and needs a fresh cut for his graduation the next day.

Every wall in the tiny shop is covered with sports posters — from Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols to Tim Duncan and LeBron James — and even a framed photo of musician Bob Marley.

But what immediately catches your eye is the giant poster of Correa — holding a Houston Astros jersey and posing with commissioner Bud Selig after being selected on June 4 with the No. 1 overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft — that covers an entire wall.

As he walks in, Correa grabs a black marker, squats down and autographs it with a personal message:

“Gracias por todo su apoyo.”

Translation: “Thank you for all your support.”

Similar encounters happen across this Caribbean island where the 17-year-old shortstop made history by becoming the first Puerto Rican-born baseball player to be taken with the top overall pick.

“The people in my hometown have been so supportive of me,” Correa said. “I can’t say no to them.”

Correa can’t say no to a 21-year-old man who has lost both legs, pulling out an autographed baseball card he gives out on “special occasions.” Correa can’t say no to the guys selling water on the side of a road, trading the last four bottles for an autograph on a banner they have tucked in the back of the trunk. Correa can’t say no to the cellphone employee who’s eight months pregnant and wants a photo as a keepsake for her daughter.

His name and boyish good looks are everywhere — on the back of car windows, on signs along the winding, two-lane Highway 153 heading into town. Carlos Beltran, one of Puerto Rico’s most popular major league exports, has called him a hero. Others simply stop to thank him for putting Puerto Rico back in the baseball spotlight after a steady decline in recent years.

On a semi-paved road in Santa Isabel’s Barrio Velazquez is where Correa first began to learn to play baseball when he was 5.

“I was everywhere throwing the ball, against walls, against the houses, hitting all over the place,” Correa said. “Some people got mad.”

As neighbors recall, there wasn’t a day before or after school that Correa wasn’t out in the street — so narrow it’s barely wide enough for one car to pass — throwing a baseball into buckets on each end.

“This was his baseball field,” Luis Guillo said in Spanish as he points three houses down to where Correa once lived. In the driveway of Guillo’s home is a white Mitsubishi Lancer with the words, “Carlos Correa, the pride of Velazquez” painted on the back window.

Santa Isabel is a southern coastal town of nearly 22,000 that still has its charm with its malecón, or boardwalk, and the Plaza de los Fundadores in the heart of downtown, surrounded by old buildings, cobblestone roads and tight alleys. A welcome sign proclaims Santa Isabel as “La Tierra de Campeones” — “The Land of Champions.”

Correa grew up on the edge of town in the fishing village of Barrio Velazquez, a low-income area that sits on a floodplain and is often swamped by water from the overflow of the nearby

Coamo River when heavy rain or a tropical storm hits.

A few years ago, the Correa family moved about a mile away to government-subsidized housing in an area on higher ground.

“I’ll always remember him as the little boy that turned into a man and followed his dream,” said Sarita Santiago, the family’s former next-door neighbor.

Down the street, at the tiny Ana Luis Rosa community school — where Correa attended in his early years — first-grade teacher Mariam Tejero Torres beams with pride.

“Carlos was born special,” she said. “He was never common.”

Residents of Barrio Velazquez gathered to watch the draft on a big-screen television at a nearby park where Correa often played. When the Astros selected him with the top pick, Guillo could hear the roar several blocks away.

When he returned home from the draft, Correa rode in a white jeep, holding a Puerto Rican flag, as a procession drove through his old neighborhood.

“We believed in him that he was going to go very, very far,” Guillo said. “Now all the children, that’s their vision.”

A lot of sacrifices

To support his family, Carlos Correa Sr., 36, had as many as three jobs at a time, earning the nickname “24/7.” He worked construction, installing windows, doors and roofs, and took a maintenance position with the local government mowing grass and cutting shrubs at a park. Correa’s mother, Sandybel, 34, worked part time at a local grocery store, but she now stays home with 13-year-old son Jean Carlos, himself an aspiring shortstop, and 3-year-old daughter Leibysand.

As busy as Carlos Sr. was, he still had time to play baseball with his son.

“Every single day, no matter the time or hour, his father was outside playing with Carlos,” said Edwin Rodriguez, Correa’s agent and former coach.

When he was 15, Correa enrolled at the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and High School, but the long drives over La Cordillera Central (the central mountain range) into Caguas, about 45 minutes north of town, strained a family already strapped for cash. The transmission on the family car eventually went out. Members of the academy’s coaching staff offered assistance, picking up Correa at 6 a.m. every day at a McDonald’s along Highway 52 and returning him to the same spot at 6 p.m.

“We made a lot of sacrifices,” Correa said. “That’s the most important thing — when you get something back for what you have been sacrificing for so long.”

After receiving a $4.8 million signing bonus, Correa said the first thing he plans is to pay off the family’s debt. He told his father he no longer had to work.

“My father is my reason I am here in this position,” Correa said. “He is the key to my success.”

Carlos Sr. said he still plans to work because “that’s what I know.”

It has been a good week for the Correa family. On a shopping trip to San Juan, Sandybel receives a phone call that Carlos Sr. has been honored as Santa Isabel’s “Father of the Year,” a fitting tribute in time for Father’s Day.

“He deserves it,” said Correa, who gives his dad a hug and kiss on the cheek.

‘It will always be here’

A few miles from Correa’s home is Estadio Municipal, a semi-pro ballpark where he spent many early mornings and late nights. The ballpark is a deep fly ball to right field from a seawall that holds back the Caribbean Sea.

Some nights, more than 100 people would watch Correa practice. A few times Carlos Sr. even called Rafael Burgos, a groundskeeper, to turn on the lights and unlock the gates at 4 a.m.

Correa would take about 300 swings until it was time to leave for school.

Burgos recalls a time when Correa put on a home run display.

“He hit one to right field, center field and left field,” he said pointing in each direction of the green-faded walls.

Now that Correa is beginning his professional career, he won’t be around the stadium. But when he wants to return, Burgos promised, “it will always be here for him.”

Class valedictorian

Before heading to graduation, Correa makes a quick detour to Emanuel Biblical Baptist Church, where his family attends. During a brief ceremony, he’s presented a plaque for being selected with the top pick.

Pastor Rene Pereira gathers the family in front of the congregation and offers a short prayer. “Bless him and guide him to make the right decisions,” Pereira said. “Lead him to the right decisions.”

A couple of hours later in the town of Cayey, Correa stands with 90 of his classmates from the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and High School in a corridor at the Centro de Bellas Artes.

He slaps high-fives, takes pictures and signs autographs for classmates he hasn’t seen since being drafted.

When it’s finally time to walk into the auditorium, Correa is greeted with a loud ovation from the crowd, which includes former major league players Alex Cora and Carlos Delgado.

Correa is class valedictorian (he had a 4.0 grade point average and made a 1560 on the SAT) and pulled off the academic version of the cycle with honor medals in Spanish, mathematics, science, history and English.

Before signing with the Astros, Correa had accepted a baseball scholarship to the University of Miami. If he didn’t play baseball, Correa said, he would pursue accounting because “I like numbers and want to manage my own money.”

School principal Lucy Batista said Correa has always been “an impressive leader.”

“He’s one of those people that touches your heart with the kind of quality person he is,” Batista said. “One of the things I love about Carlos is his ability to connect with the younger kids. For example, a mother of one of the younger children said her child idolizes Carlos. He comes home saying, ‘Carlos said hello to me’ or ‘Carlos helped me.’ If they need help, he helps them.”

School officials had a surprise for Correa: They retired his No. 83 jersey.

“It was an honor,” Correa said.

The next chapter

At San Juan International Airport, Correa stands with his parents in the middle of the terminal for one final goodbye. They offer some last-minute advice.

Sandybel warns her son about “the distractions out there … the girls” and to “appreciate his free time.”

Carlos Sr. tells his son now that he has reached one of his goals and “has it in the palm of your hand, don’t let it go.”

From there, they go in separate directions: Carlos Sr. and Sandybel on a planned vacation to the Dominican Republic; Correa to catch a flight for Orlando, Fla., where he will report to the Astros the next day.

“I’m going looking for something — to make the big leagues,” Correa said. He passes through a security checkpoint, turns around and says, “Let’s go.”

The next chapter of his life is set to begin.

In Kissimmee, Fla., Correa arrives at the Astros’ minor league complex on a shuttle bus along with about three dozen other players. He checks in with the clubhouse attendant and is assigned a locker and brick-red No. 29 jersey with no name on the back.

On the field, Correa mingles with his new teammates, fields ground balls at shortstop, takes batting practice and gets a quick bunting adjustment tip from assistant coach Gordy MacKenzie during the two-hour workout in the Florida sun.

“He’s ready,” MacKenzie said. “He won’t have any problems. He fits right in.”

After his first practice as a professional, Correa walks off the field satisfied. On Monday, he’ll play his first game when the Gulf Coast Astros host the Cardinals.

“I feel part of the team,” he said. “I’m excited to be here.”

Correa walks out of the clubhouse just in time to catch the shuttle back to the team hotel. A late-arriving fan on the other side of a chain-link fence calls his name. He wants an autograph. For the first time, Correa has to say no.